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A Lion Among Ladies (Theocritus II, 66-68) Author(S): Lillian B

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A Lion Among Ladies (Theocritus II, 66-68) Author(S): Lillian B A Lion among Ladies (Theocritus II, 66-68) Author(s): Lillian B. Lawler Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association , 1947, Vol. 78 (1947), pp. 88-98 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/283485 REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.com/stable/283485?seq=1&cid=pdf- reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms The Johns Hopkins University Press and are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association This content downloaded from 199.111.227.97 on Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:30:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 88 Lillian B. Lawler [1947 VII.-A Lion Among Ladies (Theocritus II, 60-68) LILLIAN B. LAWLER HUNTER COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK In Idyll II, 66-68, Theocritus speaks of a procession in honor of Artemis, in which at least one basket-bearing maiden takes part, and in which "many animals" move about, "among them a lioness." It is suggested in this paper that, as one or more basket-bearers walk along, a rout of mummers, representing various animals, cavort about them, encircling the more sedate procession; that these animal dancers are maidens also; and that one of them represents a lioness. The ritual as a whole honors Artemis in two of her aspects - as a goddess of fertility and as potnia ther6n. The animal rout is a very old type of ritual. There are evidences of its use, either as a religious rite or as a form of amusement, from Minoan-Mycenaean times down through all subsequent ages to the present. In the second Idyll of Theocritus there is a passage (lines 66-68) of more than ordinary interest. Simaetha, lamenting her lost love, Delphis, tells how she first set eyes upon him at a procession in honor of Artemis. She elaborates upon the procession: "Anaxo, daughter of Eubulus, walked as basket-bearer to the grove of Artemis. At the same time many animals took part in the pro- cession around about her, and among them was a lioness." Comment upon this passage, and upon the procession which it records, seems in general to reflect scholars' astonishment at the thought of wild beasts, and particularly lions, moving through the streets of a Hellenistic Greek city (whether the locale be Sicily or Rhodes or Cos), and of young women of good family walking calmly in their midst. The name of the festival involved is unknown, but the ritual is basically of a familiar type - a procession in honor of Artemis, in which basket-bearing maidens take part. In all probability Anaxo was not the only kanephoros on this occasion. A scholiast on the passage tells us (Schol. Theoc. 2.66) that the maidens who carried the baskets engaged in the ritual before marriage. Xenophon of Ephesus (1.2) describes a somewhat similar procession of basket- bearers in a festival in Asia Minor, and says that it was a sort of marriage fair.' As it happens, there are animals also in the pro- 1 One is reminded here of the Easter Monday ritual in modern Megara, when marriageable girls perform in a dignified processional dance while eligible youths look on; and it is said that on the following day suitors present themselves at the homes This content downloaded from 199.111.227.97 on Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:30:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Vol. Ixxviii] A Lion Among Ladies 89 cession described by Xenophon of Ephesus - hunting-dogs and horses, led or ridden by young men dressed as huntsmen, to honor Artemis as goddess of the hunt; but there seem to be no lions among them. The significance of the animals mentioned by Theocritus has been debated long and earnestly. Some scholars have thought that the beasts were a tribute to Artemis as huntress or Mistress of Animals, and that in the procession they were chained, and were led by attendants. Other writers have expressed the opinion that the lioness, at least, was tame. Many have regarded the animals as sacrificial victims - even the lioness! Still others have thought that the animals were merely statues or other effigies, which were solemnly carried in the procession (in the Dionysiac procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, we recall, there were carried huge effigies of animals, among them lions - Athenaeus 5.201F, 202D). Some of the scholiasts on Theocritus even say that the animals in this particular poem were simply painted pictures.2 I believe, however, that there is another and more cogent explanation of the passage. From earliest times, the lion was associated with divinity. Cook and Evans3 recognized lion-headed daemons, servants of the great mother goddess, in the art of pre-Hellenic Greece, and Crete. These scholars concluded that in the prehistoric period there was an actual "lion cult" in Greece, Crete, and Asia Minor. Cook believes that in this cult the worshippers wore lion masks and skins, performed a mimetic lion dance, and were probably called "lions." Most scholars regard the lion as completely foreign to Greece ;4 but of the young women who have pleased them in the procession. See Lillian B. Lawler, "The Easter Dances at Megara," CJ 23 (1927-8) 7-15. On basket-bearers see David M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynthus, 10 (Baltimore. 1941) 16-17. and note 82. 2 H. L. Ahrens, Bucolicorum Graecorum Theocriti Bionis Moschi Reliquiae, 22 (Lipsiae, 1869) page iii. Other theories mentioned in this paragraph will be found in the following: Martin P. Nilsson, Griechische Feste (Leipzig, 1906) 206-7; Otto Keller, Die Antike Tierwelt, 1 (Leipzig, 1909) 24-61; Lewis R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, 2 (New York, 1896) 432; Wernicke in RE s.v. "Artemis," col. 1344; M. M. Miller, The Sicilian Idyls of Theocritus (Boston, 1900) 52; A. S. Way, Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus (Cambridge, 1913) 9. 3 A. B. Cook, "Animal Worship in the Mycenaean Age," JHS 14 (1894) 103-119, and Figs. 5-9; Id., Zeus (Cambridge, 1914-40) 1.704; Arthur J. Evans, "The My- cenaean Tree and Pillar Cult," JHS 21 (1901) 101, 117, 166-168, and Figs. 1, 12, 13, 14. 4 Eleanor F. Rambo, Lions in Greek Art (Bryn Mawr College, 1918) passim; Keller, op. cit. (above, note 2) 1.35-6; Martin P. Nilsson, Minoan-Mycenaean Religion (London, 1927) 332-3. This content downloaded from 199.111.227.97 on Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:30:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 90 Lillian B. Lawler [1947 whether there were or were not wild lions in Greece proper, Italy, Sicily, or Crete during that period, certainly the prehistoric inhabi- tants of those lands had seen lions in Egypt and Asia Minor, and had been deeply impressed by them. Many writers see in Hellenic legends of the transformation of human beings into animals evidence for prehistoric animal cults or totemism.5 Among these legends there are some which involve a transformation into a lion - e.g., the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes (Ovid, Met. 10.691-704), and the story of the victims of Circe (Odyssey 10.212 and 433); cf. also the story of the transformation of Dionysus into a lion (Hymn. Hom. 7.44-53). Other ancient peoples, of course, had "lion cults." Lion- headed deities appear in the art of the Hittites, Persians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Cypriotes, and Egyptians. Among the latter in particular we recall Sakhmet, the lion-headed goddess who personi- fied the destructive power of the sun, and Bast or Bastet, the cat- headed or lion-headed goddess of hunting and animal fertility both of which divinities were identified with Artemis by the Greeks. It is possible that these two Egyptian goddesses may have had some influence on the prehistoric "lion cult" in Crete and Greece, and on archaic Greek ritual. Certainly in the Hellenistic period, in the days of Theocritus, relations between various Greek cities and Egypt were close and friendly, and there was much influence of the one civilization upon the other. From earliest times the influence of Mesopotamia, also, was great upon Greece; and Mesopotamian lion deities, and deities of the "Master of Animals" and "Mistress of Animals" type had a profound effect upon pre-Greek and Greek religion and thought.6 There is from remote antiquity an association of the lion with Artemis.' In the Iliad (21.482-4) the goddess is actually called a lion: "Zeus made thee a lion toward women." Although this is 5 Cook, "Animal Worship" (above, note 3) 159-160. 6 Rambo, op. cit. (above, note 4) passim; J. W. Crowfoot, "The Lions of Kybele," JHS 21 (1901) 118-127; Cook, "Animal Worship" (above, note 3) 115-119 and Figs. 10 and 13; Pierre Demargne, "Le Maitre des Animaux sur une Gemme Cretoise du M. M. I," Melanges Syriens Offerts a M. Rene Dussaud (Paris, 1939) 1.121-7 and Fig. 1; Robinson, op.
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